A number of crops, and in particular hay, are often cut in the field where they are grown and allowed to cure/dry. After curing, the hay is compressed in to bales by a mechanized baler. Mobile balers, were first developed around 1940 and produced rectangular bales small enough for a person to lift, usually between 70 and 100 pounds each. The size and shape made it possible for people to pick bales up, stack them on a vehicle for transport to a storage area, then build a haystack by hand.
The handling of bales of hay has always been difficult, heavy and tiring work. However, the introduction of large round and square bales, which can weigh 700-900 lbs and 1800-2000 lbs, respectively, has made it impossible to manually lift and handle individual bales. As a result, there have been many devices proposed for handling such bales either from a front loader or from a three-point hitch arrangement of a motorized farm implement (e.g., tractor). These prior art loaders are generally of three types. One type has a pair of arms with transverse pins at one end adapted to engage a single bale, generally at its axis, on opposite sides. Another type of apparatus uses a spear type lift arrangement. These prior art loaders are typically limited to engaging a single bale. Another type utilizes a multiple cradle arrangement where an implement connected to a tractor utilizes spaced tines that are lowered to the ground to engage a bale. Most of these cradle type loaders require that an operator perform multiple direction changes in a tractor to load the multiple cradles. Further, if one or more these cradles extend beyond the width of the tractor, it is often impossible to transport the bales though gates and/or into buildings. This typically requires unloading the bales and utilizing another implement to effect the final storage of the bales.